In late October 1998, the remnants of Hurricane Mitch stalled over Honduras and Nicaragua, killing more than 10,000 people and causing as much as $8.5 billion in damage. While Central America and the Caribbean have a history of natural disasters, the fatalities and destruction caused by Mitch were the greatest in at least several decades, prompting many questions including: What accounts for the extent of these losses? Is Mitch a harbinger of future disasters in the region? and What might be done in response? This paper seeks to shed light on these questions by examining the historical and geographic context of hurricane vulnerability in Latin America and the Caribbean. The paper examines trends in economic and other societal factors that increase vulnerability to hurricanes in Central America and the Caribbean and includes a case study of normalized hurricane losses in Cuba made possible by newly collected damage data published herein. The paper places its findings into the context of policies related to climate change and natural hazards.

The writers are grateful to Chantal Simonpietri, D. Jan Stewart, Jennifer Oxelson, three anonymous referees, and officials at the United Nations for the invaluable assistance provided in preparing this paper. This research was partially supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coastal Services Center. Much of the work was completed while the first and fifth writers were at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, sponsored by the National Science Foundation.